ON CAPITOL HILL

Big-money GOP groups want Reps to work with Dems on immigration

Super PAC aligned with Ryan actively defending plan

Published: 05/17/2018 at 11:58 PM

(McClatchy) Immigration issues still starkly divide Republicans on Capitol Hill — but the powerful outside groups that fund GOP campaigns are united in a push to give permanent legal status to young undocumented immigrants.

A network of groups funded by the billionaire Koch brothers — which has in the past funded far-right candidates — and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are behind a Republican plan to partner with Democrats to give DACA recipients a path to permanent residency.

Even though that proposal has not been publicly embraced by GOP leaders on Capitol Hill, a super PAC aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is actively defending the plan’s Republican leaders back home in their districts.